Writing career
Barry began his journalism career in 1971, working as a general-assignment reporter for the Daily Local News in West Chester, Pennsylvania, near his alma mater, Haverford College. He covered local government and civic events and was promoted to City Editor after about two years. He also started writing a weekly humor column for the paper and began to develop his unique style. He remained at the newspaper through 1974. He then worked briefly as a copy editor at the Associated Press's Philadelphia bureau before joining Burger Associates, a consulting firm. [6]
At Burger, he taught effective writing to businesspeople. In his own words, he "spent nearly eight years trying to get various businesspersons to...stop writing things like 'Enclosed please find the enclosed enclosures,' but...eventually realized that it was hopeless." [7]
In 1981 he wrote a humorous guest column in The Philadelphia Inquirer about watching the birth of his son, which attracted the attention of Gene Weingarten, then an editor of the Miami Herald 's Sunday magazine Tropic . Weingarten hired Barry as a humor columnist in 1983. Barry's column was syndicated nationally. Barry won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1988 for "his consistently effective use of humor as a device for presenting fresh insights into serious concerns." [8]
Barry's first novel, Big Trouble , was published in 1999. The book was adapted into a motion picture directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring Tim Allen, Rene Russo, and Patrick Warburton, with a cameo by Barry (deleted in post-production). The movie was originally due for release in September 2001 but was postponed following the September 11, 2001, attacks because the story involved terrorists smuggling a nuclear weapon onto an airplane. The film was released in April 2002.
In response to a column in which Barry mocked the cities of Grand Forks, North Dakota, and East Grand Forks, Minnesota, for calling themselves the "Grand Cities", Grand Forks named a sewage pumping station after Barry in January 2002. Barry traveled to Grand Forks for the dedication ceremony. [9]
Articles written by Barry have appeared in publications such as Boating , Home Office Computing, and Reader's Digest , in addition to the Chicken Soup for the Soul inspirational book series. Two of his articles have been included in The Best American Sports Writing series. One of his columns was used as the introduction to the book Pirattitude!: So You Wanna Be a Pirate? Here's How! ( ISBN 0-451-21649-0), a follow-up to Barry's role in publicizing International Talk Like a Pirate Day. His books have frequently appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list.
On October 31, 2004, Barry announced that he would be taking an indefinite leave of absence of at least a year from his weekly column to spend more time with his family. In December 2005, Barry said in an interview with Editor & Publisher that he would not resume his weekly column, although he would continue such features as his yearly gift guide, his year-in-review feature, and his blog, as well as an occasional article or column.
In 2005, Barry won the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism. [10]
Music
During college, Barry was in a band called the Federal Duck (the band actually issued a self-titled album on Musicor Records in 1968, but Barry was no longer in the group by that point). While at the Miami Herald, he and several of his colleagues created a band called the Urban Professionals, with Barry on lead guitar and vocals. They performed an original song called "The Tupperware Song" at the Tupperware headquarters in Orlando, Florida. [13]
Beginning in 1992, Barry played lead guitar in the Rock Bottom Remainders, a rock band made up of published authors. (Remainder is a publishing term for a book that doesn't sell.) The band was founded by Barry's sister-in-law, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, for an American Booksellers Association convention, and has also included Stephen King, Amy Tan, Ridley Pearson, Scott Turow, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount Jr., Barbara Kingsolver, Matt Groening, and Barry's brother Sam, among others. [14] [15] The band's members "are not musically skilled, but they are extremely loud," according to Barry. Several high-profile musicians, including Al Kooper, Warren Zevon, and Roger McGuinn, have performed with the band, and Bruce Springsteen sat in at least once. The band's road tour resulted in the book Mid-Life Confidential: The Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America with Three Chords and an Attitude. The Rock Bottom Remainders disbanded in 2012 following Goldmark's death from breast cancer. They have reunited several times, performing at the Tucson Festival of Books in 2016 and 2018.
Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years, from 1962 to 1981. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll. Cronkite received numerous honors including two Peabody Awards, a George Polk Award, an Emmy Award and in 1981 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter.
The Pulitzer Prize for Commentary is an award administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism "for distinguished commentary, using any available journalistic tool". It is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Journalism. It has been presented since 1970. Finalists have been announced from 1980, ordinarily with two others beside the winner.
The Rock Bottom Remainders, also known as the Remainders, was an American rock charity supergroup consisting of popular published writers, most of them also amateur musicians. The band took its self-mocking name from the publishing term "remaindered book", a term for books that are no longer selling well and whose remaining unsold copies are liquidated by the publisher at greatly reduced prices. Their performances collectively raised $2 million for charity from their concerts.
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The Herald Hunt, formerly the Tropic Hunt, is an annual puzzle hunt in Miami, Florida. It was co-created by Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry, along with Tropic editors Gene Weingarten and Tom Shroder. The Tropic Hunt debuted in 1984, and as of 2018 there have been a total of 18 Hunts. The winners of the 2011 Herald Hunt were Jeffrey Kobal, Cheryl Kobal, and Adam Horowitz.
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Arthur Bernard "Chip" Bok III is an American editorial cartoonist for the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal and the Tampa Bay Times. He has illustrated some of Dave Barry's books, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1997.
Kingdom Keepers is a series of children's novels written by American author Ridley Pearson. The New York Times Bestselling series is published through Disney Editions and Disney Hyperion, and the first book was released on August 29, 2005. Its plot follows the adventures of five teens who, by day, are holographic hosts in the Disney Theme Parks. By night, they battle Disney villains to keep them from taking control of the parks, the Disney entertainment empire, and the world. The series' franchise also includes several other elements such as an online game and an interactive educational tour provided for school groups through Disney's Youth Education Series.
Joel LeRoy Achenbach is an American staff writer for The Washington Post and the author of seven books, including A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea, The Grand Idea, Captured by Aliens, It Looks Like a President only Smaller, and three compilations of his former syndicated newspaper column "Why Things Are". He is a contributor to many publications, including Slate and National Geographic, where he is a former monthly columnist. Achenbach has been a commentator on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, and does occasional lectures and other speaking engagements. In addition to his work in the print version of The Washington Post, Achenbach was one of the first Post writers to have a significant presence on the Internet and formerly wrote the popular Post blog, "The Achenblog," which ended in March 2017.
Eric Shansby commonly known as Shansby, is an American cartoonist and children's book illustrator. His cartoons appear in American news outlets, most prominently in The Washington Post alongside columns by humorist Gene Weingarten.
Alan Zweibel is an American writer, producer, director, comedian and actor whom TheNew York Times says has “earned a place in the pantheon of American pop culture." An original Saturday Night Live writer, Zweibel has won five Emmy Awards and two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work in television, which includes It's Garry Shandling's Show and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
B.B. King in London is a studio album, the nineteenth, by B.B. King, recorded in London in 1971. He is accompanied by US session musicians and various British rock- and R&B musicians, including Ringo Starr, Alexis Korner and Gary Wright, as well as members of Spooky Tooth and Humble Pie, Greg Ridley, Steve Marriott, and Jerry Shirley.
Glenn O'Brien was an American writer who focused largely on the subjects of art, music, and fashion. He was featured for many years as "The Style Guy" in GQ magazine and published a book with that title. He worked as a writer and editor at a number of publications, including Rolling Stone, Playboy, Interview, High Times, Spin, and Details. He also published the arts and literature magazine Bald Ego from 2003 to 2005.
Joel Selvin is an American San Francisco-based music critic and author known for his weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle, which ran from 1972 to 2009. Selvin has written books covering various aspects of pop music—including the No. 1 New York Times best-seller Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock with Sammy Hagar—and has interviewed many musical artists. Selvin has published articles in Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, Billboard, and Melody Maker, and has written liner notes for dozens of recorded albums. He has appeared in documentaries about the music scene and has occasionally taken the stage himself as a rock and roll singer.
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Kathi Kamen Goldmark was an American author, columnist, publishing consultant, radio and music producer, songwriter, and musician. Goldmark was the author of the novel And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You, co-authored or contributed to numerous other books, wrote a monthly column for BookPage with her husband, author and musician Sam Barry and produced the radio show West Coast Live. She was a member of the San Francisco band Los Train Wreck, and founding member of the all-author rock band the Rock Bottom Remainders. As President of "Don't Quit Your Day Job" Productions i,nI., she supervised the production of ten music and spoken-word CDs.
